SINGAPORE COURT AWARDS MINISTERS S$460,000 IN BLOOMBERG DEFAMATION CASE

A Singapore court has ordered Bloomberg and reporter Low De Wei to pay S$460,000 (£266,000) in damages to two cabinet ministers following a defamation trial. K Shanmugam, Coordinating Minister for National Security, and Tan See Leng, Minister for Manpower, sued Bloomberg over a 2024 article examining property transactions by wealthy Singapore buyers. The judge determined that the article, when read in full, implied wrongdoing by the ministers by linking their property dealings to secrecy and money laundering, despite Bloomberg's assertion that it did not suggest impropriety.

The article, titled "Singapore Mansion Deals Are Increasingly Shrouded in Secrecy", examined methods used by wealthy purchasers to obscure acquisitions of Good Class Bungalows—multimillion-dollar estates in Singapore. It reported that Shanmugam had sold a bungalow for S$88m to an unnamed buyer using a trust, and that Tan had purchased a Good Class Bungalow for approximately S$27m through a non-caveated deal arrangement. Bloomberg stated the ministers were cited as examples of a broader trend rather than as subjects of wrongdoing allegations.

Bloomberg's editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said the outlet was "very disappointed by this ruling but we will of course respect it" and maintained that its reporting was "accurate and served an important public interest". He stated the outlet believed the ministers had "imposed an extremely strained meaning on what was a solid story". The court ordered Bloomberg to remove the article from its website following the verdict.